THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SPIDER-MAN : BRAND NEW DAY.

“Are you Peter Parker, or are you Spider-Man?”

“I’m both”

Set in the years after the events of No Way Home, Spider-Man : Brand New Day enters a new era, following Peter Parker as he finds his place as Spider-Man after losing everyone he loves.

Before this movie, there has never been a Peter Parker when he is on his own. He has always had people on his team; May, Happy, Tony, the Avengers, the other Peters and obviously Ned and MJ, but now he has no one. He is lonely, and focuses all he has into being Spider-Man to distract himself from the fact, so much so that it pushes his body to start becoming even less human and even more spider. He spends his time chasing old connections, and while MJ and Ned don’t remember him (most likely – the ending scene with Ned was definitely ambiguous in that way), he finds his way back into their lives in some capacity. The scene where MJ finds Peter’s note is incredibly well acted and incredibly sad, but it made sense that she didn’t remember him, and it was a necessary catalyst for the rest of his journey in the film.

There’s another extremely emotional scene (but for completely different reason) outside the hospital where Peter sees just how much support from the public he really has, and how he realises he has to keep moving forward. Throughout Brand New Day, he finds connections as Spider-Man, not necessarily needing people to know who he is to have them on his team. He keeps steady contact with DeWolff, aiding the police with their crime solving, and even reaches out to Yelena a couple of times. We also see Bruce Banner/ The Hulk, and I would love to see Marvel make a deal with Universal so we can see Ruffalo’s character in much more depth. Peter’s friendship with Frank (Punisher) blossoms in Brand New Day, reminding me of his relationship with Tony in many ways, and I really hope their dynamic is explored further as it brought a lot of comedic moments to what was a predominantly emotional film.